Steve Cherundolo went off injured as Hannover continued their winning ways against Stuttgart while Luis Robles notched up his second shut-out in three games in Karlsruhe's win over Bielefeld.

Hannover 96 2 - 1 VfB Stuttgart

Hannover notched up yet another win on Saturday against Stuttgart to extend their hot streak, however may have to do without their captain Steve Cherundolo for several games as he left midway through the first half with a knee injury.

DaMarcus Beasley was not included in head coach Mirko Slomka's gameday roster.

Hannover had the upper hand from the opening whistle thanks in large to Ivorian striker Didier Ya Konan who proved to be a constant thorn in their visitors' side.

Twelve minutes after Cherundolo left the game with a problem in his knee, Ya Konan put the Reds ahead in the 35th minute when he pulled down a cross from Manuel Schmiedebach and sent his shot right between the legs of Stuttgart keeper Sven Ulreich.

Stuttgart looked to have earned a draw when Georg Niedermeier beat Hannover keeper Florian Fromlowitz to a clearance and headed the ball into the net in the 74th minute.

The hosts, however answered quickly, with Ya Konan running onto a long probing ball from Christian Schulz, and easily rounding the isolated Ulreich to give Hannover the 76th minute winner.

Hannover climb to third place with the win, now just one single point behind second-place Leverkusen. They will look to head into the winter break on a winning note when they visit Nürnberg on Saturday.

SC Freiburg 3 - 0 Borussia Mönchengladbach

Michael Bradley played the full 90 minutes for the Foals on Saturday as the team were subjected to yet another brutal beating, this time at the hands of Freiburg.

Freiburg midfielder Daniel Williams did not suit up for the hosts.

Papiss Demba Cisse put Freiburg into the lead after 19 minute when he rose high to head in a pinpoint cross from by right side by Romanian international Maximilian Nicu that left Gladbach keeper Christofer Heimeroth no chance.

Nicu was again the engineer of the hosts' second goal four minutes before the break, sending a long pass to the left side of the area which Cisse fired towards goal. While Heimreroth managed to parry the Senegalese international's shot, Oliver Barth was waiting in opportune position to put away the rebound for 2-0.

Cisse put the game out of reach one minute before the hour mark, this time being on the end of a long free kick from Julian Schuster which landed to the left of goal, and blasting his shot high and well out of Heimeroth's reach.

With the loss, Gladbach remain stumped in last place, and will hope to put a halt to their four-game losing streak on Friday evening when they visit Hamburg.

Freiburg remain fifth in the standings, and face a tough test on Sunday when they visit second-place Leverkusen.

Karlsruher SC 1 - 0 Arminia Bielefeld

Luis Robles earned his second shut-out win in three games on Friday evening as Karlsruhe blanked last-place Bielefeld.

With both teams lingering at the bottom of the standings and looking forward to a potentially long relegation fight throughout the second half of the season, Karlsruhe got the goal they needed to secure the victory three minutes before the half-hour.

Hitting quickly on the counter-attack, Macauley Chrisantus darted up the left flank and into the box, where he first evaded a defender before laying the ball over to Timo Staffeldt, who side-footed the ball into goal.

Robles came up big on several occasions in the second half to keep their visitors off the scoreboard, crucially blocking a five-yard header from Christian Müller in the 79th minute to help secure the vital three points.

Karlsruhe climb out of the relegation zone thanks to the three points and are now perched one point above Osnabrück in 15th. They close out the fall term on Monday night when they visit 14th-place Union Berlin.

SC Paderborn 07 0 - 0 MSV Duisburg

David Yelldell and Duisburg put on a commanding defensive performance to keep Paderborn off the board, but were forced to settle for one point on Saturday as their attack was likewise foiled.

Paderborn started off the brighter of the two teams, however were lacking the final precision to force Yelldell into any action at Duisburg's goal.

The hosts could have gone up just before halftime when a free kick from Philipp Heithölter looked headed towards goal, however Yelldell had no problems to make the save.

Drab play and missed chances characterized the second half, with Duisburg substitute Sefa Yilmaz most notably hitting the crossbar on a wide-open chance in the 69th minute.

Neither team could will themselves onto the scoreboard, giving each their share of the points.

Duisburg fall out of the league's promotion spots into fourth place, however still just two points behind league leaders Augsburg. They will look to climb back to the top on Friday evening when they host Bochum.

Notes

Ricardo Clark sat on the bench as an unused substitute for Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday in their disappointing 1-0 loss at Cologne.

Jermaine Jones has been demoted by Schalke coach Felix Magath to their reserve squad a did not participate on Sunday for their 1-0 road win over Mainz.

Kenny Cooper finally suited up for 1860 Munich on Sunday afternoon in their 1-1 draw at Ingolstadt, however was an unused substitute and will hope to make his season debut the following weekend when the team hosts SC Paderborn. Amaechi Igwe is still recovering from an injury and did not suit up for the hosts.

Alfredo Morales did not suit up for Hertha Berlin's 2-0 win at home over Erzgebirge Aue on Sunday.

Matt Taylor and Rot Weiss Ahlen's Saturday afternoon match at Werder Bremen II was postponed until a later date due to unplayable field conditions.

Fabian Hürzeler and Bayern II's game on Saturday at Wacker Burghausen was canceled due to inclement weather.

RANDOM TAGS FROM PAST WEEK...
SELECT `tags`.`id` AS `tag_id`, `tags`.`tag` AS `tag_name` FROM `article_tags` JOIN `tags` ON `article_tags`.`tag` = `tags`.`id` WHERE `article_tags`.`article` IN () GROUP BY `article_tags`.`tag` ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 10